Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of controlling a scanner and a control method for the same.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image scanner (hereinafter referred to as a scanner) serving as one of image input apparatuses notifies an information processing apparatus connected thereto of an event informing the intention of starting a scan operation, and executes the scan operation when receiving an instruction from an information terminal device based on the information. In such a conventional scanner, when a user operates an operation unit of the scanner to read an image, the scanner executes the scan operation, and image data acquired by the scan operation is transferred to the information terminal device connected to the scanner (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-355481).
The information processing apparatus includes a button monitoring program for regularly monitoring a button event of the scanner to recognize that the user has performed the reading operation from the operation unit of the scanner. When receiving the event of pressing the reading start button from the scanner, the button monitoring program activates a predetermined application in the information processing apparatus, and acquires the image data via a scanner driver. The application causes the scanner driver to execute scan processing through an application program interface (API) conforming to the standard such as technology without an interesting name (TWAIN), and a windows image acquisition (WIA), thereby acquiring the image data. Moreover, the button monitoring program stores information about a reading setting made by using the operation unit of the scanner, in a shared memory of the information terminal device. Thus made reading setting is reflected in a scan operation performed by an instruction from the information processing apparatus. Then, the application activated by the button monitoring program accesses the shared memory to interpret the reading setting information, and instructs the scanner driver to execute the scan operation according to this reading setting information.
Meanwhile, there is an operating system (OS) for an information processing apparatus which employs a sandbox technology to prevent an unauthorized operation thereof. In such a system, an application and a device driver are subjected to sandbox to enhance system security. However, since the sandboxed application restricts an operation to that within the area protected by the system, the reading setting information cannot be accessed after activation of the application.